"We regard all this as another attempt by the government in Kiev to continue to incite anti-Russian hysteria across the country under the pretext of defending its national sovereignty and territorial integrity in the run-up to the presidential election," the diplomat stated.

"Previously, restrictions were imposed individually, but then they started to extend to entire groups of people, such as artists, reporters, cultural luminaries, etc. And now it seems that Kiev’s authorities don’t want to bother with even a hint of apparent intelligibility as they’ve decided to take much more far-reaching moves and started to impose restrictions, which can be easily applied to large groups of people, particularly Russians, who are planning to visit Ukraine," Zakharova pointed out.

On November 7, Poroshenko signed a bill imposing criminal liability for representatives of Russian security agencies who illegally cross the Ukrainian border.